New homeless hostel for Salisbury comes a step closer

Salisbury’s brand new state-of-the-art homeless hostel moves a step closer, and the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire John Bush has been on site to see the progress being made. Westlea is working with Alabaré to replace Damascus House in St Ann Street, with a brand new purpose-built hostel.

The demolition process is now complete and the former Damascus House has been reduced to rubble, making way for the new building.

Construction company Morgan Sindall has started laying the foundations for the new facility by installing concrete piles at the site. The company will drive 100 continuous helical displacement piles deep into the ground to provide a solid base for the building.

On Thursday 29th July, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, John Bush OBE, joined senior representatives from Westlea, GreenSquare, Alabaré, and Wiltshire Council to mark this important milestone.

The Lord Lieutenant was met on site by: Jo Curson, Head of Development at GreenSquare Group; Andrew Lord, Alabaré Chief Executive; John Proctor, Alabaré Chairman; Rev Canon David Durston, Alabaré Vice Chairman; Cllr John Brady, Cabinet member for Economic Development, Planning and Housing at Wiltshire Council; and Phil Howard, Commercial Manager at Morgan Sindall.

Lord Lieutenant John Bush was very impressed with the progress that had been made on site and was very positive about the new hostel, saying: “This new hostel won’t just be a roof over people’s heads; it is about rehabilitation; providing training and education to help people build a better future for themselves.”

The visitors were given a brief tour of the site and shown some of the equipment being used to complete the important piling process.

The new hostel, which is anticipated for completion in summer 2011, will provide high-quality accommodation and a range of training facilities in an environmentally-friendly building. The ethos of the hostel will be based on the Places of Change programme, the principal aim of which is to ensure more positive move-ons for residents.

“It’s great to be delivering this flagship scheme for Salisbury that will make a real difference to local people who find themselves in need of this type of accommodation,” said Jo Curson, Head of Development at GreenSquare. “Today has been a wonderful opportunity to meet our partners on site and to celebrate the start of the next stage of this unique development.”

The neighbouring Grade II Listed Emmaus House, formerly the charity’s care home, has been protected during the demolition and will be sympathetically converted into eight move-on flats for residents making the transition from supported accommodation to living independently.